Pokemon Scarlet and Violet anime (MODS' UPDATE 23/08/2022)

[kantoskies]

Not to dredge up the Satoshi debate again, but from a logistical standpoint there really is no reason to replace him and keep the show running as-is.

The production team has shown they have no issue with molding his character to fit whatever box they need their protagonist to fit for the current series. He had somewhat reasonable and linear growth from Kanto > Johto > AG > DP, but starting with BW it was all over the place. He can be a seasoned trainer who builds off his past experiences while also helping guide others like in Diamond&Pearl, then he can be a bumbling rookie who makes silly mistakes like in Best Wishes, then he can be a stoic, bland, generic shounen anime protagonist like in XY, then he can be an excitable kid who is still reasonably competent but just kinda chills in a school for 3 years like in Sun&Moon...really at this point the production team doesn't really seem to care all too much about what's realistic growth for Satoshi coming off the previous series. Hell, how long did it take him to mention the fact that he's the Alola champion in this series?

Any supposed replacement for Satoshi as a main character (and I don't mean a co-star like Gou, I mean full-on, 100% replacement) would essentially have the same basic character traits Satoshi has each series regardless of direction: loves Pokemon, cares about others, enjoys battling (eventually, I could see them having a new main character warm up to battles but not having that last too long since that's the main point of the series), has a partner Pikachu, etc etc etc. Again, anything else past that and the writers have shown they could more or less push on to Satoshi if they need to. His progression from DP > BW > XY > SM shows it doesn't have to be linear.

The one thing the new main character wouldn't have is 25 years of nostalgia to cash in on. The current series shows the writers are still very interested in cashing in on nostalgia and bringing back old characters. Those Arceus specials were essentially just a big love letter to Diamond&Pearl, which would be harder to pull off with a new main character. I suppose you could still get some nostalgia if you tried really hard even with a new main character- what's to stop them from running into Kasumi, Side Stories-style?- but without that character connection it isn't that satisfying.

I really only see Satoshi leaving as a main character if the show as we know it ends. I suppose if Rica Matsumoto ever wants/needs to leave I could see them retiring his character and moving forward but that doesn't seem very likely either.

 

[RileyXY1]

Journeys completely changed everything about how the anime works. They're letting Ash actually defeat Champion-level trainers. If any of Ash's M8 fights happened in any past series he would have been creamed. I just don't think that they can return to the classic formula without a hard reboot and the complete reset of Ash all the way back to the very beginning of his journey.

 

[Weddingbells]

Not to dredge up the Satoshi debate again, but from a logistical standpoint there really is no reason to replace him and keep the show running as-is.

The production team has shown they have no issue with molding his character to fit whatever box they need their protagonist to fit for the current series. He had somewhat reasonable and linear growth from Kanto > Johto > AG > DP, but starting with BW it was all over the place. He can be a seasoned trainer who builds off his past experiences while also helping guide others like in Diamond&Pearl, then he can be a bumbling rookie who makes silly mistakes like in Best Wishes, then he can be a stoic, bland, generic shounen anime protagonist like in XY, then he can be an excitable kid who is still reasonably competent but just kinda chills in a school for 3 years like in Sun&Moon...really at this point the production team doesn't really seem to care all too much about what's realistic growth for Satoshi coming off the previous series. Hell, how long did it take him to mention the fact that he's the Alola champion in this series?

Any supposed replacement for Satoshi as a main character (and I don't mean a co-star like Gou, I mean full-on, 100% replacement) would essentially have the same basic character traits Satoshi has each series regardless of direction: loves Pokemon, cares about others, enjoys battling (eventually, I could see them having a new main character warm up to battles but not having that last too long since that's the main point of the series), has a partner Pikachu, etc etc etc. Again, anything else past that and the writers have shown they could more or less push on to Satoshi if they need to. His progression from DP > BW > XY > SM shows it doesn't have to be linear.

The one thing the new main character wouldn't have is 25 years of nostalgia to cash in on. The current series shows the writers are still very interested in cashing in on nostalgia and bringing back old characters. Those Arceus specials were essentially just a big love letter to Diamond&Pearl, which would be harder to pull off with a new main character. I suppose you could still get some nostalgia if you tried really hard even with a new main character- what's to stop them from running into Kasumi, Side Stories-style?- but without that character connection it isn't that satisfying.

I really only see Satoshi leaving as a main character if the show as we know it ends. I suppose if Rica Matsumoto ever wants/needs to leave I could see them retiring his character and moving forward but that doesn't seem very likely either.

Didn't the writers admit that they purposefully make Ash forget some things/ act a certain way to have him grow because they admitted after 25 years it's hard to find a way to develop him

 

[Hidden Mew]

Journeys completely changed everything about how the anime works. They're letting Ash actually defeat Champion-level trainers. If any of Ash's M8 fights happened in any past series he would have been creamed. I just don't think that they can return to the classic formula without a hard reboot and the complete reset of Ash all the way back to the very beginning of his journey.

Given how the PWC has been handled, it's really hard for me to see Journeys as such a game changer, even with Ash defeating Champion level trainers. It feels less like Ash is just so uber powerful now and more like they needed him to defeat Champions in order to move the plot forward since his goal for this series was to battle Leon. Admittedly, this might have been less of an issue if they did a better job developing his team, actually show more on-screen training, didn't rush through a good chuck of the PWC and if the PWC was handled better as a whole. Besides all that, Ash is basically whenever the writers want him to be in any given series. If they want him to go back to battling Gym Leaders or have a noticeably different personality between series, they can easily do that. Considering how long it took for them to bring up Ash being the Alola League Champion, I still don't think the PWC will be brought up that much in the next series either.

I still don't that a hard reboot and a complete reset of As back to being a completely new trainer is the only way for him to do Gym battles again. Is a reset possible? Sure, it would be probably easier to do than just keep him as an undefeated Champion, which just sounds boring to me anyway, and since he'll have a new team, I think a reset might happen regardless. Not to the degree that he's practically a new trainer again, but a new team won't be instantly at Champion level anyway. Is it the only way Ash could take on Gyms again? No, because he isn't going to think the Gym challenge or Gym Leaders are below him now. Considering that Bea was easily his most challenging opponent prior to the Master Class and it took him three attempts before he could actually defeat her, it would make no sense for Ash to think like that.

I still don't see them going for a hard reboot. While not impossible, it still feels less plausible to me because that would be erasing more than just Ash's skills and experience. That would be removing all of his traveling companions, all of his Pokemon and basically twenty five years of nostalgia. I don't really see them going that far just to have Ash do Gyms again, especially when I don't think it's necessary at all for them to go that far. Ash doesn't need to be a brand new trainer to want to battle Gyms. He doesn't really need a huge grand reason to battle anyone. Just hearing about a new region with new Pokemon would be more than enough to make him want to go to Paldea and take on the Gym Challenge.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Journeys completely changed everything about how the anime works. They're letting Ash actually defeat Champion-level trainers. If any of Ash's M8 fights happened in any past series he would have been creamed. I just don't think that they can return to the classic formula without a hard reboot and the complete reset of Ash all the way back to the very beginning of his journey.

He can just retire his Journeys team, and that won't be an issue anymore. I highly doubt a hard reboot is evert coming.

 

[Galar Adventurer]

As far as Ash leaving goes, while his dialogue from the trailer for the finals is eyebrow raising...:

Spoiler

https://twitter.com/AnipokeFandom/status/1581130833024667649

... I wouldn't read into it too much. The summary for the Sinnoh League back in the day
also made things seem like Ash was leaving after Diamond & Pearl, but that didn't end up being the case:

 

[SamurottMan]

I mean...climax, final battle, conclusion to dream. These are all key words they use to hype stuff in the anime, so it doesn't strike me as something implying Ash's departure.

The 'shocking news' can easily be a hint at Zekrom or Pikachu's electrile disfunction.

 

[flowerfun]

I've been thinking, could Chloe possibly join Ash to travel to Paldea and be the female companion in the Gen 9 anime? JN120 didn't do much to resolve her arc, it could just be because the writers were too lazy to write a conclusion for her character, but it could also be because they are planning to make Chloe the female companion of the SV anime and her arc would get larger focus. Do you think this could happen?

 

[Kurolegacy]

I've been thinking, could Chloe possibly join Ash to travel to Paldea and be the female companion in the Gen 9 anime? JN120 didn't do much to resolve her arc, it could just be because the writers were too lazy to write a conclusion for her character, but it could also be because they are planning to make Chloe the female companion of the SV anime and her arc would get larger focus. Do you think this could happen?

Highly doubtful especially when the writers treated her story as such an afterthought that they never even bothered to make her an actual main character, arguably even reducing her already limited prominence in the final stretch. Even the opening reflects it between how she went from prominently being shown in the previous opening as part of the trio to:

1. Not even getting to be with Ash and Go in the opening panning shot.

2. Literally being left behind at home waving off Ash and Go as they go off on another adventure.

3. Her big scene in the opening only reflects the activity that she takes part in in a single episode and nothing more while Ash and Go’s both reflect the climax of their storylines in this series.

While her partner might be a timeless Pokémon as Eevee, I don’t see the writers bringing her back for more when they didn’t seem to care much here.

 

[Eitarou]

Chloe's arc was concluded. Predictable as it was, it's still an ending.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

Highly doubtful especially when the writers treated her story as such an afterthought that they never even bothered to make her an actual main character, arguably even reducing her already limited prominence in the final stretch. Even the opening reflects it between how she went from prominently being shown in the previous opening as part of the trio to:

1. Not even getting to be with Ash and Go in the opening panning shot.

2. Literally being left behind at home waving off Ash and Go as they go off on another adventure.

3. Her big scene in the opening only reflects the activity that she takes part in in a single episode and nothing more while Ash and Go’s both reflect the climax of their storylines in this series.

While her partner might be a timeless Pokémon as Eevee, I don’t see the writers bringing her back for more when they didn’t seem to care much here.

Poor, poor Chloe. From a somewhat promising start, to a walking talking Eevee/Eeveelutions promotional ad, to a mere afterthought of the writers. Now, she'll always be remembered as one of the biggest "what if" characters, when she could have been so much more. Tragic.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I've been thinking, could Chloe possibly join Ash to travel to Paldea and be the female companion in the Gen 9 anime? JN120 didn't do much to resolve her arc, it could just be because the writers were too lazy to write a conclusion for her character, but it could also be because they are planning to make Chloe the female companion of the SV anime and her arc would get larger focus. Do you think this could happen?

I really doubt that. While the school setting would arguably be more fitting for Chloe than showing up at her father's lab every now and then, I can't picture them keeping her around when they've barely had any interest in Chloe in this series. They've had over a hundred episodes in Journeys. Even if they didn't want to make her a proper main character, that was still plenty of time to focus on her more often to conclude her storyline here. If they weren't interested in giving Chloe more episodes besides meeting Eevee evolutions, they aren't going to carry her into the next series as the female companion.

It just makes more sense to have a new female lead instead of keeping a character that they've had little to no interest in over the course of one series like Chloe. As much as people probably wouldn't like to see another female lead with an Eevee, it would also be easier to actually show Eevee in battle and making use of the Terastal forms with a new character. Chloe has never shown any interest in battles, so she would not be the best choice in showing Eevee in their Terastal forms.

 

[Daren]

I think the odds are fairly good that we'll go back to the companions being mostly game characters next series. They do have the advantage that there are three plotlines in the game so they won't need to come up with anime exclusive goals for them.

As much as people probably wouldn't like to see another female lead with an Eevee, it would also be easier to actually show Eevee in battle and making use of the Terastal forms with a new character.

If we need an Eevee and it can't go to Ash (I expect Scarlet/Violet to be a bit closer to the norm than JN so probably only gen 9 captures and I don't expect a new Eeveelution) my suggestion is that one of the companions be six Eevee in a trenchcoat with the one operating the arms holding up signs to talk ala Wile E. Coyote.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

If we need an Eevee and it can't go to Ash (I expect Scarlet/Violet to be a bit closer to the norm than JN so probably only gen 9 captures and I don't expect a new Eeveelution) my suggestion is that one of the companions be six Eevee in a trenchcoat with the one operating the arms holding up signs to talk ala Wile E. Coyote.

This would be unironically amazing.

 

[Kurolegacy]

This would be unironically amazing.

It would be the ultimate evolution of inserting Eevee into the cast.

 

[flowerfun]

Chloe's arc was concluded. Predictable as it was, it's still an ending.

Not really. Chloe still doesen't know what she wants to do by the end of the series, JN120 didn't really resolve anything.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Not really. Chloe still doesen't know what she wants to do by the end of the series, JN120 didn't really resolve anything.

She resolved to keep her life open-ended and just go with whatever catches her interest at a certain moment.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Chloe's story was left in a deeply unsatisfying open ended "The possibilities are endless!" conclusion. Its over.

 

[flowerfun]

She resolved to keep her life open-ended and just go with whatever catches her interest at a certain moment.

That's not a resolution. She still doesen't know what she wants to do and it still leaves her arc very open-ended.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Chloe's story was left in a deeply unsatisfying open ended "The possibilities are endless!" conclusion. Its over.

I bet the writers thought they were being clever when in reality all they did was waste a lot of time only to come up with the same answer she got all the way back in her first character episode. They started with an open-ended question and finished with an open-ended answer.